Press Releases

Says deduction is a matter of fairness for more than 531,000 Tennesseans

Posted on January 9, 2015

***

“After extending this deduction five times, we should make this provision permanent to help Tennessee families and provide certainty that individuals will keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets.”—Lamar Alexander

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2015 - U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today announced he is cosponsoring legislation to make permanent the state and local sales tax deduction, which allows residents in states with no state income tax, such as Tennessee, to deduct their state and local sales tax payments from their federal income tax.

“This is a matter of fairness for Tennesseans and residents in other states with no income tax to ensure they do not have to pay more taxes than other taxpayers,” Alexander said. “After extending this deduction five times, we should make this provision permanent to help Tennessee families and provide certainty that individuals will keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets.”

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), would make permanent a provision in the Internal Revenue Code that allows taxpayers with itemized tax returns in states with no income tax to deduct state and local sales tax payments from their federal income tax, the same way taxpayers in other states can deduct their state income tax payments. This levels the playing field for taxpayers in the nine states that do not have an individual income tax. In 2012, over 531,000 Tennessee tax filers claimed the tax deduction for state and local sales tax payments and reduced their taxable income by over $1.1 billion.

Alexander has cosponsored numerous pieces of similar legislation throughout the past five Congresses. This provision has been extended five times since its creation in 2004, most recently in December of 2014.

# # #

For access to this release and the senator’s other statements, click here.

To stay up-to-date on the senator’s latest actions, follow him on Twitter and YouTube.